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It has been six months since my last post….and a LOT has happened. The new year started off with a “bang”. On January 4th, the first day of trading, the American stock market went “BANG” and dropped 1000 points. The Republican field went from over a half-dozen candidates to essentially one – Donald Trump. While I do not have a dog in this fight (for I believe all elections are rigged – especially at the federal level), I believe something very onerous is on the horizon. Those who are intellectually honest are receiving this same feeling of foreboding. Something is about ready to spring on the American citizen with the tension of overextended bear trap. An event that when it occurs, there is very little to no chance of survival to the unprepared.

What is this event you may ask? Frankly, I am not certain. It may be a single event to multiple events happening simultaneously. While I do believe the following events will happen in America, I am not certain as to which order:

Economic Collapse. Again, if you are intellectually honest, this is the biggest threat to the American way of living. At the time of this post, the US national debt stands at over 19 TRILLION dollars. This is not counting unfunded liabilities such a Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, etc. All of which may not have been such a crisis if we did not kill off north of 70 million of our countrymen through the process of abortion.

Civil Unrest. Through the socialist tactic of class warfare, the nation has been divided. At one time we were united through the vehicle of opportunity. Now we are divided through the process of outcome. Scripture says: “A wise man sees trouble and hides himself. The simple move on and they are punished.” (Proverbs 22:3) Those who see the trouble are preparing themselves accordingly, while those who don’t are no different from those in ancient Rome whose bread and circuses were more important.

The Destruction of Freedom. What makes a nation flourish is the ability to pursue individual desires that positively contributes to the society as a whole. Aside from the societal belief of being the benefactor of Divine Providence, it is the secret to the experiment called America. When those in authority believe they are that providence, coupled with the apathy of the citizenry, it is a recipe for the chains of bondage to be applied at all levels – economic, political, social, and spiritual.

We as a nation are entering a dark time that has not been seen since the Middle Ages. A time of lawlessness that is only governed by the bridle of the human heart instead of Divine Providence. In short, we have said to God, “We can run our own affairs. We don’t need You.”

While people are busy scurrying on the street or online looking for that perfect post “Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal” I ask myself, “How ready is the typical American (let alone the typical American Christian) for an economic collapse? The answer is: Not at all. We as a nation have not learned ANYTHING from the collapse in 2008.

In fact, we plunged ourselves deeper into debt. From a 7 year car loans that when you drive the car off the lot you are already “underwater” in your loan terms. To student loan debt collectively equating to north of 1 trillion dollars – with no job prospects in sight since the true unemployment rate is north of 20%. It seems to me that America as a whole has embraced the adage: “Eat, Drink, and Be Merry, for tomorrow we die.” Little that she knows that she has been bingeing in the 4th watch of the night – just before the new day dawns. When this day finally does “dawn”, so will the revelation that the party’s over and that the “piper” will have his hand outstretched for “payment.” It will be Day One of economic slavery in America. A day where some have laughed at people to scorn in mockery to those whose saw the signs and have prepared accordingly. In other words, the “Zombie Apocalypse” has arrived.

Please keep in mind the term “Apocalypse” simply means revelation. This will be a multi-faceted revelation. An economic revelation. A political revelation. A moral revelation. A spiritual revelation. We as a nation can not be doing wrong things and not expect a backlash from our activities. Case in point:

You can’t expect Social Security to continue when you kill 70 million future payers over a 40 year period.

You can’t expect a nation to be politically free when its own government sacrifice 3000 of their countrymen to restrict the movement of 300 million people.

You can’t expect a culture to survive when lines between right and wrong – from math and language to identification of what is male and female in a society are blurred.

You can’t expect the spirit of a nation to live when those who have been commissioned with the task of preserving it (the American Church) have largely neglected their duty through apathy or silence in the pulpit.

We are racing toward the end of an era. An era that looks more like end of Rome than that of a God-fearing country. There is not much time left. You need to get your “houses” in order: Economic, political, moral, but above all your spiritual house needs to be in order. Whether you believe in eternity or not, it is there – and it is waiting for you. With each passing day you are one day closer to meeting with eternity and most importantly, the Creator of it.

A lot has changed over the 60+ days from my last entry. Greece has received the “haircut” that I referred to in my last entry. This is where the Greek people could only receive $60.00 Euros per day from their bank accounts. The scale of turmoil on the global landscape could not have been humanly imagined. The American stock market has crashed over 2000 points. The Chinese stock market have dropped significantly. Financial wars have started – to the point that a tactical nuclear device (my opinion) has been detonated in Tianjin, China over the fact that the Chinese government devalued their currency three times in ONE WEEK. If after the last 60 days you are still of the impression that the American economy is “on the mend”, I can not help you anymore. Your normalcy bias is so strong, that until the national police comes to your door, you will not wake up.

To those that still subscribing to this blog, Congratulations! You are among the less than 1% of people’s that are “awake” to the madness. To underscore the point of where we are headed, one has to look no further than countries that have already embraced or in the middle of a financial collapse presently. Countries such as: Venezuela, Argentina, Zimbabwe, or Greece. These are countries that the masses are angry at their government for robbing them of their freedom: politically, socially and financially. While their anger is seething collectively, they lack a few items. Items such as:

Food

Water

Medicine (Over the Counter)

Toilet Paper

Arms and bullets to protect themselves and the aforementioned.

Another thing that I did not name on this extensively short list is gold and silver – with an emphasis on silver, At roughly $15.00/oz, silver is gigantic bargain. The metal is in such short supply, that it is carrying a 30-50% premium above the price aforementioned – if you can find it.

America is in the final stages of its last Hurrah. The sun is setting on this once great and prosperous land. While there are evangelistic pundits that talk about that this is the greatest soul winning opportunity that the world has ever seen, they also seem to carefully omit that gross darkness must shadow the land first. For I am of the opinion that the modern-day Sanhedrin that we are living under are more concerned about revenue than revelation. Thus, if you listen to their great swelling words, and do not prepare your household accordingly, you do so at your own peril.

When you come out of the barber shop or the beauty salon after a haircut and style you feel “better.” More confident. Ready to take on world. In the financial world, a “haircut” is a very painful experience. Why? It is a severe reduction of your finances through the means of a bank failure. Consider this:

In the traditional way banks are structured, the depositor is protected and the investor takes the risks. So if the bank failed, the investor would be taking the “haircut”. Since 2008, the laws have changed. Under the Dodd-Frank law, the depositor is now classified as an “Unsecured Creditor”. As a creditor they will be exposed to any loss the bank has. If the bank would fail, the unsecured creditor would be the last one in line to be financially restored. As the term implies, the creditor is unsecured because the deposit that they make into the bank, the bank classifies it as a credit. Since the credit made is not collateralized or “secured” – hence the name. Most people – Christians especially, are woefully unaware of this. Their extent of their financial training can summed up in Malachi 3:10 or Luke 6:38. This type of ignorance leave the Believer fighting an enemy in a land of “unwalled villages” – completely exposed to anything that the enemy throws at them. While you can attempt to make the argument that “The Christian fights on their knees”, or that you “Fully rely on God,” how long will you stay there when the bank takes up to 60% of your account balance? You can even make the argument that we are not going to be here since we will be “Caught up to meet the Lord in the air,” (See I Thessalonians 4:16-18) but what makes you think you got the timing right when Jesus Himself said “No man knows the day or the hour…..” (see Matthew 24:36)? The point is that the preparing for the financial collapse that is coming to America is YOUR responsibility. If you have the seen the reaction of Americans in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina or the Northeast after Hurricane Sandy, then you know that our countrymen by and large are terribly unprepared for natural disasters. Keep in mind that the hurricanes mentioned are regional in their scope of damage. The financial disaster coming will be national. All 50 states will feel the effects of this financial failure that is coming to our shores. For this “storm” is global in its scope and no human who is tied to the system will escape it.

You have seen the long lines at the ATMs and the rioting that has occurred in Greece. This is nothing more than a “coming attraction” to America. However, there are some things you can do now that can lessen the blow when – not if comes to America:

1) Pray Up. As they are no “atheists in a foxhole” so there will not be one in a financial collapse. Get to know God. Seek Him while can be found. Call to Him while He is near. Get a Bible start reading it. To those who already know Him, examine yourself in His Word. Ask Him to remove the sin that so easily besets all of us. In other words, repent to Him and re-establish a right relationship with Him.

2) Stock Up. In a disaster scenario, resources are the order of the day. When disaster strikes, people will belong to one of two camps: Those who have resources and those who don’t. The ones who have them will not be necessarily “rich”, but like the Sons of Issachar were able to discern the signs of the times and prepare accordingly. The ones who don’t will laugh, jeer and scorn at the ones stockpiling; No different those who laughed at Noah while he was building the ark – until the rain came. Some of the things you may want to stock up may include:

Water

Food

Toothpaste

Batteries

Cash

Precious Metals

Your list may vary from you neighbor’s, but the point is to MAKE ONE.

3) Arm Up. Regardless of which side of the gun control debate you fall on, you can’t rely on prayer alone to keep yourself, your family or your possessions safe. When force is presented, such as a home invasion, your ability to complete a 21 day fast is not going to help. Force only recognizes force. The ability to possess and use a firearm properly is the best way to deter or defuse an invading force coming into your personal space.

It is not my job to convince you that this event is coming. Nor is it my job on telling you how to prepare. That is a conversation for you and God to have. My job as a watchman is warn you of the impending danger and you choose the best course of action to respond. If you choose to let your financial “hair” grow, then you will make appropriate choices. If you decide to nothing, the don’t complain about the financial “crew cut” that you will receive.

It has been said, ” When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Do we really know what that means? Do we understand that at the end of the Roman Empire the people did not pay attention to what their government was doing? While gladiator games and the like were the things kept the people occupied at the Coliseum, the government was robbing the treasury for their own selfish gain.

Fast forward a couple of thousand years later, and only the median has changed. The people don’t necessarily need to go to the Coliseum to see an event – although they are willing to part with their hard-earned money to do so. The majority of people can bring the tragedy of human drama into their homes such as “The Bachelor”, “Real Housewives of (fill in the city) “Preachers of (fill in the city)” or “Keeping up with the Kardashians”. The median for governments stealing have changed also. Instead of taking physical money out of the treasury, it now happens by movings ones and zeroes on a server. In both cases, the mindset of the Roman nation is alive and well: The people’s lust for pleasure and the government’s lust for power.

How can this be stopped? The first act of stopping this is to recognize that there is a problem in the first place. This is our biggest obstacle as a church and as a nation. We like to be sophisticated and call it “normalcy bias”. Call it what you will, however it is denial pure and simple. Some will attach a reasoning to it such as: “This can’t happen here, we’re Americans”. Others will take the “supernatural” route and say, “God will never let that happen here, we’re the most blessed nation on Earth”. Any of these reasons will allow you to keep you living a “normal” life and not give you the understanding of the gravity of the situation that you are in.

“What kind of situation am I living in?” you may ask. As I stated in my last entry “Life Imitating Art”, In addition to the 18 Trillion dollars of debt that our nation owes, we are seeing the lowest interest rates ever in nation’s history – at or near zero. Why is that so important? Two reasons: First anybody who saves money in a bank is not getting a return on the money that they save. The second reason is that if you have a mutual fund, 401k, or IRA those financial instruments are getting the same interest rate. So if you are retired, you may have to come out of retirement because your pension (if it is funded) or mutual fund will not bare enough interest for you to live on.

What most Americans – especially those in the Church don’t realize is that the system we live and work in functions and revolves around credit. As an example, when we purchase things on a credit card which uses other people’s money , we are essentially saying, “I will use your money and promise to pay you back later – with interest.” When we take this to the macro or national level we are saying the same thing, only with much bigger numbers. When the borrower who is subject to the lender, (See Proverbs 22:7) can not borrow any more money, the credit line has been seized up. The borrower panics because they have to find a new way to either make the payments to existing debt, or have to find a new way to get income become their original income is not enough to live on. THIS is what happened to our nation in 2008. Fast forward seven years later and the only thing that has changed is the debt has become bigger.

“What do I do now?” you may ask. First, realize that you have been lied to – that debt is not an asset, it is a liability. That the more debt you have accumulated, the bigger the liability you have. This is the goal of the system: Those that borrow hold all the liabilities, while those who lend wait patiently for you to max out your borrowing ability and at the appointed time, “negotiate” with you for all your other assets that you have not put up for collateral. Take Greece as an example. When the government overextended itself, the primary as well as opportunistic lenders (e.g. Russia and China) made loans available for Greece – at a price say, some islands that Russia can put a Naval base on?

Secondly, you must understand that anything you have that has no debt attached to it is an asset. As an example, not only the big-ticket items such as a house or a car, financial products such as a physical gold and silver – which are strongly encourage for you to get, are assets also. Even everyday products such as food, water, soap, and shampoo, are also assets. It is in this arena you would want to aquire as many assets as possible. As you would do your routine shopping, buy a few extra items for yourself and to barter. The added cost that you will incur now will pay dividends down the line due to the lack of resources that will be coming to a store near you.

Third, you will need a way to defend yourself as well as those items that can be taken away by owning a firearm. Some that are religious and object might say, “God will defend my home. I apply the Blood of Jesus everyday”. While this is true, keep in mind that God also gives human beings free will. You wouldn’t leave your doors unlocked would you – even if the Blood was applied? Of course not. If you use practical steps to secure your home, you should practical use steps to secure your person, A firearm is a very practical way to secure yourself, your family, and your property.

Fourth and most important, establish or re-establish a relationship with God. If you are intellectually honest, you would have to recognize that all things created on the Earth had to have a Creator that is greater than and outside of the creation. While you may argue that existence of God is not provable by “science” have you ever notice that when human beings get into trouble, not a single one of them has ever uttered, “Oh Science” to get them out of trouble? Eternity waits for every human being – “sinner” and “saint” alike. Which side will you be on?

When the Roman Empire fell, it burned. America, along with the rest of world will be no different.

Since 2010, most people in America – if not the world, has heard of the television show “The Walking Dead”. A show about a sheriff getting shot and going into a coma. When he awakes, he has discovered his world has been overrun with flesh-eating zombies. How appropriate this show is at this time in our culture. We as Americans act a little more alert than the zombies being portrayed on our TV screens. Consider this:

We have a 18 TRILLION dollar national debt – with a 30 BILLION dollar interest payment PER MONTH.

We have corporations such as Citgroup and JP Morgan Chase writing our laws instead of Congress (see Dodd-Frank reform law)

We have a complicit media who spews out propaganda instead of broadcasting the truth.

We have allowed our “Civil Servants” to become career politicians drunk on their own power thereby morphing themselves into an oligarchical class.

We have allowed our countrymen to don our military’s uniform not to serve in the nation’s best interest; Rather they are being used as political pawns in a sick game of “chess” to which they come home injured, maimed, or in body bags.

and what is the nation’s response? “Did you see what Kanye West did at the Grammy Awards?”

While not being a fan of the show (I never watched a single episode), the one thing I can conclude is that in order to survive, you must be prepared. As I have eluded to in my last entry “Warnings Came Before Destruction” which you can read here, this next event that’s coming will be one of war. Not just of armed conflict, but of resources: food, water, shelter, money, oil, gas, and other commodities. People not only in America, but across the globe will be divided into two camps: Those who have resources and those who don’t. Both camps will have one thing in common: CHOICE. Each individual will make a choice based on the information they receive or ignore. Succinctly put, where you are and the resources you have will be the culmination of your choices. You will not have no one to blame but yourself if you choose to ignore the warning, not prepare and think that life will go on as “normal.”

To those who believe in the Rapture, I challenge you openly: What assurances do you have through the Canon of Scripture that the Rapture will come FIRSTand not the financial collapse? Please leave your analysis in comments section below. To those who made the choice to survive, congratulations you made the decision to prepare, aid and defend yourself, your family and your countrymen.

As a watchman, my job is to give people warnings to prepare for the destruction that’s coming (see Ezekiel 33:6) Warnings are not just spiritual or political. They are practical as well. While you may have heard our spiritual “leaders” call for a return to prayer and repentance – using II Chronicles 7:14 as “backdrop”, there is a practical side to preparation as well. I believe that preparation has not just one but three sides to it. I call it PSA:

1) Pray Up.

2) Stock Up.

3) Arm Up.

When I say pray up I mean make sure you have a right relationship with God. That if there is unconfessed sin that it is between you and the Holy Spirit to deal with it and get rid of it. That is not say that Pastoral or Elder counsel is not needed. It is to say that since the Holy Spirit does lead and guide into all truth, let Him lead you in that direction also.

To stock up does not mean you cling on to Philippians 4:19 and do nothing. In any relationship there is a partnership. In this case, you do your part and God does His. What is your part? Again by the leading of the Holy Spirit, you make provision for you and your family to survive the impending danger. This may mean buying some extra canned food, some water, soap, or any other day to day needs that the purpose is to get you through the “storm” that’s coming. This means also – if you can afford to, buy some gold or silver in the event paper currency may become worthless or unavailable.

Lastly, to arm up means simply that. You take on the responsibility to defend yourself, your family and your home from anyone intending to do you harm. While prayer should be you first line of defense, it should not be your only one. For those who believe that prayer alone is only thing that is needed to defend what God has entrusted to you, you will be rudely and sadly awakened to the sin saturated world we live in. (Ferguson, MO. anyone?)

This being said it does not mean that I negate or ignore the Rapture of the Church. However, as sure as I am of the financial collapse that will befall America and thereby reduce this nation to a third world nation status, I am equally sure of the following three things that the Rapture and the collapse of the American economy have in common:

1) BOTH events are eminent. You can’t pray, fast or wish them away. They are coming and you can’t stop them.

2) BOTH events will arrive without warning. Neither event needs a precursor event to happen.

3) No human being on the planet (including your Pastor) knows which event will happen FIRST. So why be prepared for one event and NOT the other?

In this holiday season we have many things to be thankful for. Among these is to be thankful to those who would risk it all to tell you the truth and get prepared for the danger that is to come.